Purchase builds national breastplate collection

27 JULY 2004

The purchase of 15 Aboriginal breastplates at auction today
means the National Museum of Australia now holds one of the most
significant collections in the world.

The acquisition allows the Canberra-based Museum to accelerate
its comprehensive research into the emblematic brass plates, which
were awarded to Aboriginal people for faithful service, brave feats
and acting as intermediaries with settlers.

It builds on the National Museum's existing collection of 33
plates, mainly from New South Wales and southern Queensland. The
new plates extend to northern Queensland and Western Australia,
where very few have been found.

"Each of these breastplates tells a fascinating story about
colonial history, the story of an individual Aboriginal person -
and sometimes even of their local people," said National Museum
director Craddock Morton.

One of the National Museum's existing breastplates belonged to
Charley York, a 'chief' of the Cooma region, who is not mentioned
in any written local histories. Another tells the story of Timothy,
who rescued people from a South Coast shipwreck in about 1840.

"These plates are an important record of early cross-cultural
contact and are often the last tangible links with Aboriginal
people involved in Australia's frontier history. They are
controversial because they were often given to people who were not
tribal elders, contributing to the breakdown of traditional
culture," Mr Morton said.

After research the Museum plans to put the expanded collection
of breastplates on show in regional areas across Australia - and in
its permanent Canberra galleries.

There are also plans to document them on the National Museum's
website and call for public input to build on the Museum's
knowledge about each Aboriginal recipient.

Jakelin Troy in the book, King Plates: A History of
Aboriginal Gorgets, published by the National Museum and
Aboriginal Studies Press, says the brass plates were modelled on
military gorgets worn to protect soldiers' necks and given out from
colonial times to the 1900s.

The breastplates, from the largest known private collection,
were bought today at the Noble Numismatics auction in
Melbourne.

The National Museum also purchased significant Aboriginal
objects yesterday at a Sotheby's auction, including a priceless
19thC drawing by Barak, the most famous headman of
Melbourne's Wurundjeri clan, from the only seven Barak drawings now
in private hands.